FAIR Data Infrastructure for Agrosystems (FAIRagro)
FAIRagro is a community-driven initiative within the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) and focuses on the agrosystem domain needed to develop sustainable crop production and agroecosystems. FAIRagro will establish an interoperable and scalable RDI by connecting available repositories to make research data FAIR. We will facilitate combined data analyses and establish a multilevel support system by setting up a Data Steward Service Center. We will provide guidelines and information material, and focus on knowledge transfer for agrosystem researchers. FAIRagro will address quality and legal security challenges beyond the FAIR principles.
Hans Eisenmann-Forum greatly contributes in its role as lead to support the coordination between the agricultural research use cases. Moreover, we will provide significant expertise in research and data requirements for modelling atmosphere-plant-soil-systems within a concrete use case project.
Find more information on the official FAIRagro webpage.
News
FAIRagro is being funded from March 2023 onwards
As confirmed by the Joint Science Conference (GWK) in a press conference on November 4, 2022, FAIRagro will be included as a consortium in the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) and will be funded by the federal and state governments from March 2023. A funding period of five years is envisaged. In November 2021, the FAIRagro project proposal was submitted to the German Research Foundation (DFG) for funding from 2023-2027 and was recommended for funding by a DFG expert panel in spring 2022. Now, at a press conference of the GWK, it was confirmed that FAIRagro will be included in the NFDI as one of eight additional consortia in the third and final funding round. So far, 19 consortia are already part of the NFDI. The federal and state governments will provide a total of up to 90 million euros per year until 2028 for the establishment and funding of the 27 NFDI consortia at a ratio of 90 percent to 10 percent. It was a challenging path, but together we have mastered it. We would like to sincerely thank all our partners for their support and look forward to working together and to a successful launch of FAIRagro!
Successful FAIRagro Community Workshop on June 20, 2022
On June 20, 2022, we hosted the 2nd FAIRagro Community Workshop with nearly 100 participants on the topic "Services and Tools - Useful Services and Tools for FAIR Data Management in Agrosystems Research". The aim of this workshop was to inform our community about planned tools, frameworks and services, to get interested in FAIR data management using services from FAIRagro, to motivate and to network. We will post the video recordings of the presentations and slides on our website in a timely manner - after the DFG expert panel has assessed the eligibility of our proposal. With this workshop FAIRagro started a 3-part series. Two more workshops will follow on October 14, 2022 (topic: Use cases - which concrete challenges from the agrosystems community do we address and how can I use the results?) and on December 1, 2022 (topic: Information and participation opportunities - which form of consultation is available and how can I participate?). We would like to thank all participants for their active interest and look forward to the following workshops.
FDI expert panel recommends FAIRagro for funding starting 2023
The DFG's National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) Expert Panel recommends FAIRagro for funding from 2023 onwards. In a combination of written procedure and hybrid meeting, it deliberated on the 15 consortia proposals of the third call round submitted in 2021. As a result, the NFDI Expert Panel recommends FAIRagro to the Joint Science Conference (JSC) for funding beginning January 1, 2023, making FAIRagro one of seven consortia to receive this recommendation. In assessing eligibility for funding, the key criteria were the technical quality of a consortium, its acceptance in the community, and the quality of the measures used to ensure the necessary feedback with the community. The final decision of the GWK in November remains to be seen. We are very pleased with this recommendation and would like to thank all those involved and the FAIRagro community for their great commitment up to this point. We are confident to overcome the last hurdle and to be able to start next year.